Bostonians do not need to travel to distant ports to watch a canal lock work.
There is one―a small one, to be sure, but a genuine one, nevertheless―in our own
Charles River, not far from North Station, separating the higher water of the
Charles River Basin from the lower level of the Harbor. Besides the ordinary
use of ship locks, the one Boston has is also used for flood control
purposes. In the spring of 1936, when enough flood waters came down the Charles
to have overflowed Back Bay, and when other cities in New England were
hopelessly flooded, this lock saved Boston from that fate.

*

Boston now has the greatest aquarium in America since New York has abandoned its
aquarium and shipped the bulk of its denizens to Boston.

*

For celestial news, Greater Boston leads this planet. Whatever discoveries are
made in any of the world’s observatories regarding the heavens, the news is
immediately communicated to the observatory at Cambridge, and from there the
information is sent out to astronomers everywhere. The original arrangement was
for Cambridge to act as central astronomical news agency for the Western
Hemisphere, while Greenwich acted similarly for Eastern. At present, however,
Cambridge must take on most of this news distribution for the world, as a center
in London must act under difficulties now.

*

In Quincy, it is possible to go to the mountains or to the seashore without
leaving the city limits.

The Blue Hills Reservation supplies the mountains, while such points as Squantum,
Hough’s Neck, and Wollaston Beach, supply seashore within Quincy’s city limits.